Limitations

Alerts you to outgoing network connections

If you have a firewall you can block any external application from intruding on your Mac. However what can you do to monitor traffic coming from your Mac? Little Snitch informs you of all outgoing connections.

The latest version benefits from a significant redesign, which makes the information much more clearer and accessible. You can see what connection has been allowed or denied for each application, giving you a quick overview of outgoing connections. You can block applications from phoning home, which means contacting the internet without your consent.

Little Snitch lets you give permissions to certain programs, create rules and filters, add notes and search directly from the Little Snitch window. If you want more specific information on a particular connection you can even use the new Network Monitor. This will show all recent connections and the path to the given application.

In all, Little Snitch, is a very useful tool to monitor connections from applications on your Mac.

Connection inspector now shows all information suitable for a search in the connection list as roll-over button so that a search can be started simply by clicking.

Connection Alerts

Simplified Connection Alert -- choose your preferred level of detail.

More versatile temporary rules: Until Quit, Until Logout, Until Restart, For [n] Minutes, etc.

Creation of domain rules.

Select other hostnames resolving to same IP address to create a rule for.

Research Assistant

New Research Assistant for Connections. Little Snitch's Connection Alert now has a help button. Clicking the button triggers a query to the Research Assistant Database (maintained by Objective Development) and displays information about the current connection attempt.

Users can improve the information returned by submitting feedback directly from the Connection Alert. This data is sent anonymously and will be reviewed by Objective Development.

Configuration

Powerful new interface.

Manage profiles

Create or delete profiles.

Easily add rules to profiles via Drag&Drop.

Enable profiles by double-clicking on a profile in the sidebar.

Sidebar including

Rule Filters (Last 24 Hours, Temporary Rules, Unapproved Rules, …)

Rule Suggestions.

Profiles.

Ruleset Analyzation

Detection of redundant rules.

Highlighting of redundant / covered rules, to easily see which rules are obsolete.

Rule suggestions can be grouped by their common properties (process, port, host, domain) -- Easily create rules that cover most typical connections for certain processes.

Menu Bar Item

Revised Design.

Monochrome or colored Icon.

Optionally displays current data rates as numerical values.

Access to important settings.

Switch between Profiles quickly.

Enable or disable Silent Mode quickly.

Further Improvements

In order to support multiple simultaneous logins, processes are distinguished by the user account that started the process. Rules can be created so that they apply to processes running on behalf of the current user, on behalf of a system account such as root, or on behalf of any account.

When no user is logged in, all connections which are not covered by an existing rule are automatically denied. Rule suggestions are created for these connections and can be reviewed in Little Snitch Configuration.

If you can't login without network access (e.g. network accounts), the system can be restarted in Permissive Mode where all connections are allowed before the first user logs in. Allow-rules are automatically created so that future logins succeed. Permissive mode is also used during the first restart after installation, but not after upgrades.

All components are code-signed.

Changes since Release Candidate (3871)

Help is now available for Little Snitch.

Fixed an issue where Ask-Rules could cause a Connection Alert to be shown even in Silent Mode.

Fixed a bug where the Connection Alert wrongly indicated that the process terminated.

Fixed an issue where rules created from the Connection Alert were for process owner "System" instead of the current user.

Connection Alert now honors modifier keys that were held before the alert was shown.

Little Snitch tells you when a program tries to send info to the internet so you can see whats going on in the background! You start an application that tells you that a new version is available. You suddenly realize that with every start this application connects to the developer's server. Even statistics information about your computer may be sent this way. Little Snitch helps you avoid this situation. Trojan horses - i.e. programs transmitting unconsciously data stored on your computer - can be detected by Little Snitch and prevented on the transmission of data.

Features:

Prevents applications from "phoning home"

Protects you from trojans, worms, and other network parasites

Shows which applications send information over the internet

Provides a higher level of security for the paranoid

"Reply to David Barnhouse:"

I think all you need to do is go to System Preferences (click the Apple in upper-left of screen, click &quot;System Preferences&quot;).

2. Then click Accounts.

3. Next click your account (your username).

4. Click the &quot;Login Items&quot; tab near the top-middle of the window.

5. Finally, click on &quot;Little Snitch . . &quot; (if it's there) and click the - (minus) that is close to the bottom of the window.

That should keep Little Snitch from running when you start your machine or log in.

Pros

Great for intermediate and expert users who want to know what's going on with their machines.